Member Resources

There are many issues in the news today from local, state and national policy activity to animal health that put agriculture and particularly the dairy community in the spotlight. As such, we have seen an increase in media attention and other activity on farms.  

Unauthorized Farm Visitors 

Recently we sent out a member message regarding members of the National Center for Farmworker Health, Inc https://www.ncfh.org/ attempting to come onto farms to speak with workers regarding H5N1. This situation serves as a reminder that farms should have visitor policies posted and employees trained on how to handle nonauthorized visitors to the farm.  Farms are considered private property and as such, you do not have to allow unauthorized visitors on your farm. If you do see or hear of an increase in people attempting to come on to farms for unknown reasons please reach out to us so we can help monitor and inform others of the situation. 

Immigration Concerns 

Concerns over ICE raids and other immigration issues are still very much top of mind for many farmers. We have provided a number of immigration resources on the Voice of Milk webpage https://voiceofmilk.com/immigration-resources.  We encourage members who may have concerns in this area to read through the information, particularly of the documents outlining your rights. If you have questions or encountered issues on your farm, please reach out to Karen Gefvert Kgefvert@voiceofmilk.com for more information and to provide additional resources. 

Local Ordinances 

Our state and local policy team has been busy over the winter and spring tracking several local proposed ordinances that would negatively impact production agriculture. There are anti-agriculture groups working at the county level to make it difficult, or impossible, for farms to expand or build. While we follow many news outlets to keep tabs on these types of local issues, it is helpful for farmers in the area to let us know of any concerning activities in local or county government that we can assist with. We have had a few wins lately in preventing burdensome ordinances from being enacted because we were at the forefront of the action. If you have local policy concerns, you can reach out to Erin Tomasik, community relations manager, at Etomasik@voiceofmilk.com. 

We are here for you! 

With the increased attention on the dairy community, we want to remind you that we have team of professionals ready to help at any time. We can step in to help with media or public relations, policy concerns, permitting challenges and many other services.  As a member of one of the Voice of Milk organizations we are here for you! You can reach out to Laura Hensley, director of marketing and communications at lhensley@voiceofmilk.com or visit the Voice of Milk website for more information voiceofmilk.com. 

We wish you a safe and productive spring and summer.